Once again, the drive went well, and we are 20 meters closer to Glenelg,
our near-term goal. The terrain surrounding the rover at the end of the
Sol 39 drive is not as interesting as the previous location, so we didn't
plan many observations besides those needed to support drive planning. But
the plan included some ChemCam observations, as the instrument team is now
ready to resume tactical planning. Hooray! The Sol 40 drive will be a bit
longer, over 30 meters, and should get us to a low ridge that will give us
a better view of the terrain ahead.

I was reminded again today how diverse the MSL team is. Okay, white males
make up the majority of the team, but women serve in many of the most
important roles, including Mission Manager, Deputy Project Scientist,
Tactical Uplink Lead (mostly women), and Science Theme Lead. Most
impressive is the number of team members from foreign countries, including
Spain, Russia, and France, for whom English is a second (or third)
language. They are required to understand all of the team discussions and
respond to questions in English, despite the highly technical nature of the
subject matter. Some of the engineering jargon is unfamiliar to many of us
who are native English speakers! For example, "IPE supra-tactical reported
replacement of the MOB backbone in tosol's APAM and deconfliction of the
margin after the mobility block." Hard enough to understand when English
is your first language--I'm really impressed by the foreign nationals'
ability to do such a good job in these conditions.